Police Refuse to Release Description of Toxic Ecstasy Pills, Increasing the Danger of More Deaths

A string of recent overdose deaths in British Columbia has a lot of people deeply concerned. But this reaction by law enforcement is certain to make the problem worse.

VANCOUVER — Police in B.C. are reluctant to tell the public what unique markings are on ecstasy pills suspected to contain a lethal additive linked to five deaths in the province.

That's because they don't want users thinking they're sanctioning the rest of the pills. [CTV]

That is some sick logic right there. Listen, if you don't want people to think you're sanctioning the other pills, then say something like, "we're not sanctioning the other pills." What's so hard about that? But for the sake of saving human lives, at least tell people what the poison pills look like.

Drug users are people, you know. They don't want to kill their friends. If everyone knows what the poisoned pills look like, they can help get them off the street. Everyone in the ecstasy scene will be on the lookout for the toxic doses and the people supplying that garbage will be strongly incentivized to toss it, or face serious consequences within their own social circle. This will work like 900% better than just telling everyone to stop taking ecstasy altogether.

We'll save for another day the conversation about why poisoned ecstasy exists in the first place (hint: the manufacturing process is dangerously unregulated).

I was with you up until the (what I consider absurd) notion that tainted street drugs are the result of the manufacture thereof being "dangerously unregulated".

Given the nature of this site, I'm surprised that you missed the obvious -- simply legalizing the manufacture and distribution would largely clean up the process. Of course there would still be some potential for dirty drugs to be distributed, but, if legal, there would be the option of issuing a recall to distributors and consumers, just like when tainted chicken starts killing people (it is worth noting that the manufacture and distribution of chicken is regulated, and the regulation does not stop poor products from reaching the market).

If legalized, brand names would start to appear, and the owners of the brands would have a significant financial interest in keeping their products pure.

One thing we've learned about government minders regulating our behavior (including manufacturing of goods and the provision of services) is that regulation artificially increases the price of goods and services, with negligible, if any, increase in safety.

Maybe I should have said "dangerously left in the hands of criminals." I agree that there are ways to address this problem without necessarily implementing strict manufacturing regulations, although such rules might have political appeal in the event that we were trying to build support for taxing and regulating the ecstasy market.

If you know something will kill people and don't do anything about it What are you ? If they really know What the pills look like they are not serving or protecting. Remember with Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

These cops hate ecstasy users so much they won't lift a figure to keep them from being killed by prohibition sponsored contaminated product. It's a clear case of dereliction of duty, they are supposed to protect people from being wrongfully killed, instead they are refusing to share information they already have that could do that. It's not always this way, sometimes police and media will describe the appearance of contaminated, killer illegal drugs to help protect users.

The VCP put out a statement saying that there was nothing different about this ecstasy it was just like all the rest.I wrote several papers and hit my blog saying that this was an irresponsible lie and why were the police being so stupid?The story about the PMMA came out the next day.I have been a drug user for over 45 years and it still amazes me that the police would rather see drug users killed than to be responsible and do the right thing.CTV,as a rule is not the most favorably disposed towards drugs and their use.No surprise they didn't get the right message out.Vancouver,although still a pretty sane place to live if you use a drug,is not the city it was.New police chief,new mayor and a very different geographic than we had back in the day.The gangster thing is a real game changer and not for the better.This was always an open(no mafia or gang control)city as far as drugs went.Then we got the HA's and the scene just deteriorated from there.Deaths over territory were never a problem till this gang culture hit town.Prohibition seems to run a course that cannot be changed or altered.The harder the tactics used by police,the harsher the gangsters that take over.Strange we have to go through the same motions every time but as a species,we are slow learners.